Heart of an Avenger
by theforesttree
Summary: Sasusaku. He needed to leave something behind. So he left his heart with Sakura.


**I started writing this on the first day of my exams. The plot bunny whacked me in the face. But this bunny is random. So this plot is a bit crack. Forgive me.**

**My first action-ly fic. So if it sucks yeah. Flame if you want, please drop reviews.**

**Warning: Crack. A little. Not much explanation, you can use your imagination…yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

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**Heart of an Avenger**

By: littlefreakshow

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"_Sakura-chan, what's you favourite number?"_

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Light glinted in all directions off the hard metal of the three shuriken she hurled at him. Without waiting for the sharp weapons to hit her target, she steadily pumped chakra into the muscles of her legs, attaining the high speed that was impossible for a non-ninja to view. If she was fighting any rookie ninja, her opponent would have been dead before his mind registered that the shuriken was coming right at him.

But of course, her opponent was no rookie ninja.

The moment Sakura flashed behind him, she was standing in front of thin air. She heard the distinct sound of air rushing in front of her to replace the figure that was previously standing there. Her eyes – adjusting to the sudden change of light – focused on him standing on a thick tree branch, seven feet away from his erstwhile position.

She barely saw a hint of his smirk ghosted his usually stoic features before she threw her head down to evade the spinning shuriken she had sent flying at him a few seconds prior.

Sakura didn't even blink when the shuriken sliced off some strands of her pink hair.

It was a battle of speed. A battle that she would lose to the Uchiha if speed was the point concentrated. She knew. He knew.

As if he knew what she was thinking, he disappeared. She let her instincts overtake her as she jumped agilely, just in time to avoid the blow directed to her femurs. Thoughts ran briefly about the fact that he was trying to immobile her in her head. When his foot made contact with the solid branch she was previously on, it cracked, then, exploded into small pieces of wood and bark, destroying the tree into bits.

Automatically, her arm protected her eyes from the onslaught of debris that rained down upon them. Flipping neatly, yet blindly, her feet landed on the nearest branch behind her, still a good distance from Sasuke Uchiha-

-Who was regarding her with his emotionless, obsidian eyes.

A shiver she couldn't stop ran down her spine.

Sakura knew that she was probably the only one in the entire world who had such luck. She didn't even know whether it was good luck or bad luck to encounter a powerful missing-nin that could probably break all the bones in her petite body, such as Sasuke Uchiha on her return trip after a solo mission.

A mission which has her travelling for four days and healing ill patients for ten.

Straight.

Sakura had also spent most of her chakra on helping the people in Tea Country with the epidemic that stuck them. Tsunade had dispatched her to the far away land, intending to give them as much help as possible.

And who was better for the job than the accomplished Sakura Haruno?

On the fourteenth day since her mission started, she had completed it and –stupidly and totally idiotically - took off back to Konoha despite her chakra fatigue.

And luckily/unluckily, she had crossed paths with her beloved ex-teammate on the sixteenth day.

Sakura absolutely did not expect to come across him throughout this whole mission. When Naruto was hunting for him, there was not a single trace and there she was standing across him?

Che.

Moreover, he was alone. No creepy Orochimaru. No pretender Kabuto. Just him.

Team 7's long lost team member. Naruto's best friend/rival. The reason Sai was introduced into their team. The one-and-only student that Kakashi passed down his lightning technique to. The sole survivor to the famous Uchiha Clan. Their friend.

Sasuke Uchiha.

The owner of her very, very bruised and broken heart.

She felt that she rather face either Orochimaru or Kabuto at that moment.

The pink-haired kunoichi knew that anyone with at least a little bit of brain would be turning on their heels and running away at the highest possible speed they can muster at the fastest opportunity they could be lucky to have. With her lack of chakra, it was obviously the worst possible time to fight him.

Call her brainless.

But no one, not even Naruto, would beat themselves up more than she would if she were to turn and flee. And the defeated expression on Naruto's bright and sunny always-smiling face - If he ever found out that she had a chance to drag the traitor's sorry ass home – could literally kill her. Even pushing Naruto aside, just her own guilt alone would crush her. More than anything. Running –

Hell No.

-seemed impossible.

She needed to pull on a brave face and try.

Or die doing it.

Resolve flooded through her and she could almost literally hear the adrenaline coursing through her veins. Sakura planted her foot in a comfortable position before, calculating the distance, launched herself at Sasuke's unmoving form. She shot at him, blue chakra coating her small fists.

Small fists, that were ready to cause a lot of damage.

Sasuke's eyes remain emotionless as he saw her coming at him a mile away. His hair shifted as he ducked down, avoiding the fatal attack completely. Without a second of hesitation, he faced his palm upwards and pushed it upwards, thrusting it into her stomach area with sheer force. Sakura felt her mouth open involuntarily and spit was forced out of it as she flew overhead him. Not giving up despite the numbing pain, she brought down her right leg. This time, the Uchiha was caught unaware. She prided herself as she managed to nick him a little in the back. Catching herself on another thick branch that was conveniently there, she hoisted herself up before turning to look at him.

Sakura heard herself growl at the sight of him. Using her trained eyes, she studied him carefully, a frown unconsciously slipping into her previously determined face.

Her kick had torn up the back of his white shirt, directly in the middle of the Uchiha Clan symbol printed on the cloth, marring the proud symbol. The torn fabric blew in the wind, as if mocking her as she stared at the symmetrical halves of the fan.

Great. When she was aiming for damage, all she got was pretty shapes.

His back turned to face her, easily shown from the tear of the shirt, was bruise-less and the same shade of pale. Not even a slight-less cut was seen by her searching eyes.

He slowly turned, the spikes of his unkempt raven hair swaying at the movement. She was studying him in great detail. His taut muscles, unhidden beneath fabric, the angled chin of his face, everything. Her emerald green eyes determined not to miss even a slightest detail.

When he didn't have any intention –that she could see – to move, Sakura felt her eyebrows scrunch up in the middle at her own accord. She raised her glowing fists, ready to intercept any attack he throws her way.

Sakura felt another growl rise up from the pit of her aching stomach to her throat. He hadn't unsheathed his kusanagi – she could see a shimmer of sunlight that was peeking through the canopy above reflect on the hilt of the katana strapped to his waist – nor did he activate his Sharingan throughout the whole battle. His obsidian – no sign of crimson – eyes stared back into her emerald ones. Almost as if, as if he was silently taunting her: "I do not need them to kill you."

His past twelve ear old voice rang through her head. "Weak."

Sakura suddenly felt the urge to clamp her hands on her ears, like a five year old.

She grounded her molars against each other so hard that she felt the taste of blood on her tongue. She had another urge to add to the first one. She longed to scream at him. Loud and long, letting out her emotions.

Instead of submitting to her urges, to unleash the scream, a sound resembling to a gasp and a choke escaped her lips. She briefly saw his muscles twitch and then, she was thrown off balance. Flying down towards the forest floor backwards at an extremely high speed barely registered itself in Sakura's mind. All she could think of at that moment was the warmth that radiated from the arm that was around upper chest, just underneath her collarbone.

The Uchiha was currently side by side with the shocked kunoichi. He was close enough that he could feel her pink hair flying about at the side of his cheek. Unlike the female, Sasuke was falling forwards, his fingers around her further shoulder blade, bring her down with him –a good thirty metres.

Sakura wasn't fully recovered from her shock when she turned her wide eyes to Sasuke. She had to look through the pink and black hair that was tangling with each other at the speed they were falling at, to look at his stony face.

His lips were pulled in an expression of neither a smile nor a frown. Directly in between. To Sakura, this expression was like a serene one compared to the other Sasuke Uchiha expressions she had seen. Inwardly, she wished that she could see him smile.

What a thought, Sakura. What a thought.

Sasuke seemed to have other thoughts of his own, however. He earned another surprised gasp from the pink-haired kunoichi when his grip on her right shoulder tightened and he pressed her closer to his left side. Waiting for the last possible nanosecond upon impact, he manoeuvred his foothold on the ground. His board chest made contact with his knees as he crouched. Instantly, he sprang up, pulling both himself and Sakura vertical.

He felt his neck pop into place lightly due to his sudden yet smooth actions. Sasuke's body was used to such risky and outwardly dangerous moves. His inhuman speed made it much, much more dangerous than it already was. But not even a bead of sweat was on Sasuke's forehead. (Although, he had never done it with someone else pressed up against him before.) He was used to it.

Sasuke was certain that Sakura however was not. He could feel her thudding heartbeat quickly through his arm that was still locked around her frozen figure. He could see her eyes wide open with anxiety. He could hear her harsh pants from exhaustion and agitation.

His black eyes hardened and his forehead creased. She was so fragile. So delicate. So…breakable. As he took sight of her vulnerability.

He could kill her in so many different ways.

His sharp eyes refocused on her face when a huff made its way to his ears. He found her glaring at him with those childish and ridiculously big eyes. He felt his emotionless mask slip from his face as he stared at those green eyes.

Sasuke caught himself immediately and slid the well-designed stoic expression back in place, before Sakura had caught anything.

His reflexes kicked in and without thinking, he had found himself chest to back with his female ex-teammate. His warm still remained unmoving from its position but now it was caging Sakura in to his firm body, disallowing movement.

Fury spiked above the bewilderment in Sakura. What the hell was he doing? Sakura had to bite her tongue to keep herself from lashing out at him. Shouting and screaming would get her no where – but no doubt, it would make her feel a whole lot better.

Sakura made a move to elbow him in the gut but unsurprisingly, he had caught her wrist before it rammed his stomach. Sakura couldn't hold herself back this time. A curse word, learned from the blond-haired hyperactive ninja, flew from her lips.

She couldn't see it, but Sasuke had raised an eyebrow at her particular choice of word. Amusement danced behind his emotionless eyes, in depths that nobody could see.

Sakura felt a wave of mixed emotions rush through her at lightning speed. Disappointment; anger; frustration; and somewhere, hurt.

The Uchiha was strong. She knew that, Strong beyond belief at the age of twenty-one. Seven years, she and Naruto spent everyday of those seven years thinking about how to bring the bastard back. Seven years of hunting. And in those seven years, she hoped, but her feelings didn't vanish. If anything, it manifested even more.

She told herself, over and over again, that she was strong. She told everyone, that she would be able to bring Sasuke back when the opportunity arises.

But now, here was that opportunity but all she did was to stay pinned by him. The back of her black sandals touching the front of his several sizes bigger ones. She was held like a prisoner. His arm around the area just below her neck, his calloused hand gripping her wrists.

Something foreign and unknown burrowed deep into his gut when Sasuke felt the light weight on his arm that was restricting the kunoichi. Drops lay and stuck to his skin, hardly moving when the breeze blew past. Something else lodged itself in his throat when he leaned forward to the sight of Sakura's tear-streaked cheeks.

Something at the sight was beautiful to Sasuke.

He suddenly felt that he should hurry to do what he came there for over and done with. Hurriedly, as to not contaminated her any longer than necessary.

He felt dirty, unwashed, beside her. Him holding her innocent self in his bloodstained hands. It was a sin.

He threw her wrists down, out of his grasps. Another gasp emitted from her at his harshness and a streak of guilt embed in him.

Sakura felt her wrists get released from Sasuke's hold, surprisingly harsh. Like the touch of her skin was suddenly burning him. She was snapped out of her thoughts abruptly when an object was shoved roughly in her line of vision.

Green orbs blinked and focused. But before she could utter a word of her rising puzzlement, his breath caressing the lobe of her ear interrupted her.

Her words and breath was stuck in her throat when she heard his voice for the first time since _forever_:

"Keep it with you."

Before her mouth could listen to her brain and form words, she felt a pinch directed to her neck that she was all too familiar with.

She crumpled into his arms.

Being dead to the world, she didn't know that the Uchiha brushed her 'not-so-average' forehead with his lips before rising and disappearing, once again.

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**Ugh. Didn't come out the way I wanted it to… nevermind.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**-littlefreakshow**

_Beta-ed by: Hana_


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